A progressive outlook on politics in Australia and abroad

Posts Tagged ‘Iraq’

A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi Army patrol killed five Iraqi soldiers Friday in the northern town of Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

It was the second lethal attack on an army convoy in northern Iraq in two days. At around midnight Wednesday, two roadside bombs hit a patrol in a village in Iraq’s volatile Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killing five and wounding eight.

Gunmen have killed a member of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s political party in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi police officials said Tuesday.

Subhi Hassan, who handles political relations for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and a bodyguard were killed Monday after unidentified gunmen chased down their car after it passed through a checkpoint, said Police Brigadier Ahmed Hawandi.

A third person in the car was wounded, Hawandi said, adding Iraqi police were investigating the shooting.

A female suicide bomber killed at least 35 people, many of them Iranian pilgrims, and wounded scores more when she blew herself up amid a crowd of Shia worshippers outside a shrine in Baghdad today.

The attack was the second major bombing since US forces came under Iraqi Government authority on January 1. It also occurred as Iraqi leaders expressed confidence in their ability to defend Iraq at a ceremony to mark Army Day.

Although the recently-signed Status of Forces Agreement authorises US troops to remain in Iraq for a while, it did not address what remains of the “coalition of the willing”. Australia now has permission to retain troops until the end of June 2009. The account of this agreement’s passage through the Iraqi parliament is intriguing – “passed by an overwhelming majority” and “the Speaker’s resignation overnight” don’t seem to go together terribly well. I think it’s about time they started broadcasting Iraqi parliament on TV.

I find it a shame that both the US SoFA and Australia’s agreement do not need to pass through their respective legislatures – not necessarily because the agreements are bad, but simply because we haven’t seen much scrutiny of them. Most of the reporting has focused on the process at the Iraqi end – does the agreement saying anything substantial about what role the Australian military will play during the first half of next year?

With a substantial majority, the Iraqi Parliament on Thursday ratified a sweeping security agreement that sets the course for an end to the United States’ role in the war and marks the beginning of a new relationship between the countries.

The pact, which still must be approved by Iraq’s three-person presidency council, a move expected in the next few days, sets the end of 2011 as the date by which the last American troops must leave the country.

Apart from anything else, the passage of the agreement demonstrates that achieving political agreement across the sectarian groups in Iraq’s parliament is possible; of course, it remains to be seen whether the spirit of cooperation will apply for issues less unifying than the desire to see the American occupation end.

The New York Times has the full text of the agreement. FP Passport notes that the agreement provides for a referendum to be held by next July, which might see the Iraqi people overrule parliament and reject the agreement if they want American troops gone sooner. In addition to the upcoming referendum, the agreement eliminates immunity for American troops and gives Iraqi courts some jurisdiction over them, so this is a big step forward in terms of granting Iraq autonomy and imposing accountability on the United States for their actions.